Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s top contract chipmaker, yesterday announced that US chip company Altera Corp would use its chip-on-wafer-on-substrate (CoWoS) integration process technology to develop the world’s first 3D chips.
That will put TSMC in a leading position among its competitors, which include Samsung Electronics Co.
Using 3D chip technology is considered an effective way for chipmakers to make better-performing, smaller chips.
TSMC is on schedule to ramp up production of chips using CoWoS technology next year, spokesperson Elizabeth Sun (孫又文) said.
TSMC chairman Morris Chang (張忠謀) said in December that he did not expect CoWoS chips to be an important revenue source for the company until 2015.
Altera is the first semiconductor company to develop and complete characterization of a test chip using TSMC’s CoWoS technology, the Hsinchu-based chipmaker said in a statement.
Separately, when asked if TSMC sought to buy a stake in the bankrupt Japanese memory chipmaker Elpida Memory Inc as the Japanese-language Nikkei newspaper had reported, Sun said the company would not comment on equity investment speculation.
However, Sun said TSMC was shopping around for used semiconductor equipment.
The Nikkei reported on Monday that TSMC and Taiwan’s top PC DRAM chipmaker, Nanya Technology Corp (南亞科技), were among several chip companies, including Micron Technology Inc and Intel Corp, that were interested in giving financial support to Elpida in exchange of the Japanese firm’s assets.
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